How Does Listening Help in Learning Spanish?
It is recommended that a learner not limit his focus to grammar and vocabulary if he really intends to master Spanish. Audio drills and various listening exercises should be made an inherent part of the language learning process to ensure a well-rounded Spanish learning course.
Listening to Spanish is primary and essential
Listening to a language is primary and essential. It is an undeniable fact; if not, how can anyone even learn their mother tongue? You can see that a child learns the first few words of his first language by listening to his parents (and not by going through textbooks). Listening is what helps the language sink into your brain easily. More importantly, it is what empowers the other aspects of learning language – reading, writing, and speaking – all of which, otherwise, may end up almost useless for real-life application.
Listening is a form of mental practice
Listening demands that you be patient in order to comprehend the language, without which there arises a disconnect between the learner and the language – just imagine how embarrassing it is to not understand anything when you are face-to-face with native Spanish speakers.
Listening is the most engaging way of learning Spanish. It requires you to be an active listener and give all your attention to the topic being discussed. It demands time, but yields enduring results too. Importantly, listening is constructive in strengthening your language skills. However, active ‘listening’ should not be confused with passive ‘hearing’, which has much more limited benefits.
Listening helps introduce you to pronunciation, accent and intonation of Spanish
Although listening only influences the reading and writing skills indirectly, it has a direct effect on your Spanish speaking skills. Dedicating quality time to listening to native Spanish speakers can help familiarize you with pronunciation, accent and intonation of Spanish – 3 key aspects of speaking Spanish like a native speaker.
Listen to common, short sentences first and then proceed to higher levels of speech. Attentive and regular listening will help you to automatically speak like a native Spanish speaker while conversing.
Listening allows you to learn at your own pace:
Listening allows you to learn Spanish at your own pace. As already said, it is not taught, hence, it is the learner’s interest that keeps him going and produce positive results. You can pause and repeat the audio as per your grasping power and difficulty in interpreting the audio, till you get familiar with the words, topic and accent.
Listen to Spanish music, news broadcasts, etc.:
Listening can be as enjoyable as it is effective. Don’t just tune in to native speaker conversations or boring topics in your podcast; download a few Spanish songs and listen to them regularly. Take pleasure in listening to songs or music or anything that you are passionate about. It will make you feel a lot better about your Spanish skills when you come across a word that you have just learned while listening to a song. Also, listening to news broadcasts on TV or on radio can greatly improve your vocabulary as well as your ability to practically apply Spanish.
Study and measure the results:
Listening is the best way to track your progress and it’s also easy. Check how many times you are repeating a single audio podcast before you understand the language. Once you comprehend everything that you hear on the first try, you can confidently say that you have mastered the language.
Learning Spanish through listening exercises may seem passive and time-consuming, but it can be very effective. Try not to underestimate the importance of listening or you will end up being a poor learner and have a hard time speaking Spanish, regardless of how great your writing skills may be.
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